Micho: Pirates didn’t deserve to lose

Orlando Pirates coach Milutin Sredojevic was not happy with his team’s defence in their MTN8 defeat to SuperSport United but he believes his side didn’t deserve to lose.

Pirates were hoping to take a step closer to ending their trophy drought, with the Soweto Giants last lifting silverware back in 2014 when they won the Nedbank Cup, while SuperSport were looking to defend their MTN8 crown.

It was the Buccaneers who came out on the losing end as they were eliminated from the competition after their quarter-final 4-3 penalty shoot-out loss to the Tshwane based outfit.

The game finished 2-2 after-extra-time but Sredojevic was not happy with his side’s performance but believes that the result is not a true reflection of the game.

‘First of all, we started the game very well. Scored that goal and then in a short period of time, we conceded. We came back strongly, played much better. Had that chance to win it in regulation time with a penalty, it did not happen,’ the Serbian tactician told SuperSport TV.

‘Usually teams that miss chances like that one is mentally down. It looked [like] we were going to penalties. We missed those penalties, opponents scored, and they won. Penalties are a lottery. Football has once more shown us, something that is the truth, football is not what you deserve but what you get.

‘If it is about deserving, I believe with all the domination we had, we were supposed to win today’s game, but we didn’t. We need to accept this, pick up the pieces and go back to the drawing board and continue working.

‘It’s unacceptable to concede goals the way we did from the areas we supposed to protect. Practically both goals came from the same area where we shouldn’t concede such goals.

‘We need to improve effectiveness in front of goals. It’s good to play in front of a reinforced defence to learn how to play against teams that are reinforcing defences to create more chances and entrances in attack and how to utilise what brings what you need to win – which is to score goals,’ concluded Sredojevic.